Weighting of home page versus internal pages

Are they the same?

[reddevil]

Let me ask a question.....all things beinbg equal, would a site's internal page rank the same as a homepage if there were the same number and quality of links, anchors, KW density, PR etc etc?
If so, then I presume that I could rank well for all my pages and KWs if I just spend enough time on them?

[lty83]

i want to say the homepage/index page ranks higher, i've noticed that some of my pages specifically created to target certain keywords may fall second behind a competitors homepage which may have half as much relevant info for that set of keywords, but then again i see some of my internal pages rank higher than others homepages, so i guess its hard to say, my guess would say homepage has a slight edge compared to internal pages

[martinibuster]

...all things being equal, would a site's internal page rank the same as a homepage if there were the same number and quality of links, anchors, KW density, PR etc etc?

Yes.

It's good to cultivate inbound links to the inner pages, as it assures the deeper page will be spidered and ranked. Possible your homepage will have lower PR (so what? Not a big deal), but that is offset by having more pages participating in the serps for more keyword phrases.

Deep links are good.

[reddevil]

I understand that inbound links would have a beneficial affect on that particuloar pages SERPS. But which page would rank better if ALL factors were equal (including KW density, positioning and links etc etc)? Would the homepage be weighted higher or an internal page, or would it be the same? Many webmasters seem to concentrate on the homepage more than any other!

[Robert Charlton]

Because links often tend to be to the domain rather than to specific pages, the default (home) page does better on engines that look at inbound links as part of their algorithms.

If all things were somehow equal and all pages got an equal number of equally important inbound links, and all other content factors were equal, the determining factor would be the internal linking structure of your site.

Assuming you came up with a linking structure that would spread your PageRank evenly, then yes, I suppose you could say that all pages were equal.

That said, I don't think that's a very useful way to build a site. It helps to take into account which terms or phrases are harder to rank on (usually the shorter, more general terms), and which are easier to rank on (the more specific three and four word phrases).

Putting the more competitive general terms closer to home generally works better for both search engine targeting and for the site user. This scheme is called a theme pyramid and has been described several times on the boards. Here's a link to a classic thread on the subject, which will take you to other threads as well....

Search Engine Theme Pyramids and Google
Optimising the Pyramid for PageRank
[webmasterworld.com...]

If so, then I presume that I could rank well for all my pages and KWs if I just spend enough time on them?

Yes, inbound "deep" links are very helpful in getting pages to rank. This is true even for a site built around a theme pyramid. For a site not built in a pyramid structure, you might find that some of your most competive targets are in obscure pages, and though deep links will help these, these links may in practice be harder to get than links to your default domain.